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Fumigant Pesticides Risk Review

ECOSLO joins 30 organizations in analyzing the impacts of fumigant pesticides on the environment and human health

Phase 5 of the EPA's fumigant pesticide review process ended on November 3rd, 2007. ECOSLO was one of 30 organizations that collaborated on submission of detailed comments on the revised risk assessments:

Without these analyses, we would have far less understanding of the facts and no case in the public record.

However, technical comments by themselves are clearly not enough to make significant change. The case that has been made carries the weight of many allied organizations. It is supported by over 12,000 signers of a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency organized through Pesticide Action Network's Action Alert page and by the United Farm Workers. It is on the radar screen of legislative staff at the federal level. It is being considered by state regulators and local activists who have their own say in how fumigants are used in their regions, independent of U.S. EPA's decision. The issue is in the media, thanks in part to repeated accidents that poison so many people simultaneously that they deserve—and occasionally get—front-page coverage.

Titanic forces pitting the drive for ever-cheaper commodities against public health, worker protection and environmental sustainability are clashing. The close of the Phase 5 comment period is a time to take stock and strategize for our future.

See http://www.panna.org/campaigns/driftFumigants.html#Phase5Comments for more information.